Slipknot enjoys scaring people

Thursday

Jan 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMJan 29, 2009 at 8:52 AM

They wear menacing masks whenever performing or giving interviews. Their fans are known as "maggots." Their shows have become known as a couple of hours of anarchy, with sweaty mosh pits of thrashing fans, band members stalking the stage with baseball bats - pure metal mayhem.

Danielle Hatch

They wear menacing masks whenever performing or giving interviews. Their fans are known as "maggots." Their shows have become known as a couple of hours of anarchy, with sweaty mosh pits of thrashing fans, band members stalking the stage with baseball bats - pure metal mayhem.

Chris Fehn, one of Slipknot's two percussionists, likes the idea that some people might be a little unsettled by the band's antics.

"I think it's awesome that they're scared," Fehn said recently by telephone from Minneapolis, where Slipknot was kicking off its 2009 "All Hope Is Gone" tour in St. Paul, Minn. "You know, it's theater, man. It's art, it's music, it's all of that incorporated into one. Even though people might be scared of it or whatever, it's not like we're Satanists."

Slipknot, which performs Monday at the Peoria Civic Center along with Coheed and Cambria and Trivium, has been around since 1995. The nine-member band formed in the suburbs of Des Moines, Iowa, which Fehn says wasn't exactly a cultural hub. But the barren Midwest landscape may have contributed to his creativity.

"A lot of it has to do with the climate," he said. "Half the year we're inside and you can't really do anything, so I think you become more creative as far as being buried in. That kind of drives on the psyche a little bit. That's where the aggression of metal and stuff like that really came from. It kind of gave me some energy in an energy-less atmosphere."

And maybe a little angst, too.

Slipknot's image sets them apart from mainstream metal bands, moving them into Gwar-like territory. They wear disturbing masks (Fehn's is the one with the long, pointy nose), and they have been known to wear industrial coveralls, sometimes with bar codes or numbers on them. Each band member is known by a number, as well as their name: Sid Wilson (zero); Joey Jordison (No. 1); Paul Gray (No. 2); Chris Fehn (No. 3); James Root (No. 4); Craig Jones (No. 5); Shawn Crahan (No. 6); Mick Thomson (No. 7); Corey Taylor (No. 8).

This image has roiled residents during tour stops in places like Salt Lake City.

"There's only been a couple of places where the religious people came out and did their business," Fehn said. "They had to bring in the reservists to control the people (in Salt Lake City) and stuff like that. But they don't do it anymore. And that's the sad thing about the world. If they met us, they'd be like, 'God, you have more spirituality than we do.' But, whatever."

Fehn, who says he was a jock in high school, grew up listening to his dad's music - The Doobie Brothers, Queen, Bread. In the 1980s he was into music by Boy George and Michael Jackson. Then, he discovered metal, devouring Exodus' "Bonded By Blood" and Slayer's "Show No Mercy."

"It was over," he said. "I loved the dark side of it, I loved the mystique, I loved the power it felt like it gave me."

Fehn and the other band members went to their inner scary place to release albums like 1996's "Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat." They became known on a national scale after performing at 1999's Ozzfest and have expanded their fan base over the years, playing to international audiences, appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone and winning a Grammy Award for best metal performance in 2005 - all this despite early criticism that the band's popularity would be short-lived.

The mainstream success is a sharp contrast from the band's early days, when members played shows in hot, cramped venues, slinging bodily fluids, destroying instruments or mingling lighter fluid with fire to get a rise out of the fans.

"We were nuts back then," Fehn said. "But we've grown up. We don't do that anymore - it can happen at any time - but that was back in the day. It was tough for us to tour. Nine guys, all the techs, everybody stuffed on one bus. We opened up for people, we got like 20 minutes, didn't have a dressing room, we had to change in our bus. It was like a petri dish that had gone wrong. But this time, we realize that we could have some longevity in this music world, so we take care of ourselves, take care of each other and just slam our (expletives) off."

Although some people may never understand what drives the band, Fehn insists that, though it's not always pretty, it has more to do with art than empty shock tactics. And as long as Fehn has the energy of thrashing fans to feed off of, he's going to get up on stage.

"We love the music, we love what we do. It's not like we're up there going 'Oh, God. I gotta play "Sweet Emotion" again.' It still hasn't gotten to that point yet. It might feel like that during the day because it's so boring on the road, but then once that intro starts and we see those kids, it's like, (expletive) yeah."